Goods Giving Backhttp://www.goodsgivingback.com
Where Doing Goods Meets DIYSat, 11 Aug 2018 16:45:30 +0000en-UShourly1https://i0.wp.com/www.goodsgivingback.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/cropped-goodsgiving54.jpg?fit=32%2C32Goods Giving Backhttp://www.goodsgivingback.com
3232104289965Get Cooking With A Free Ebook: The Recipe Is Love, Vol 1http://www.goodsgivingback.com/free-ebook-recipe-love/
Wed, 22 Nov 2017 20:10:39 +0000http://www.goodsgivingback.com/?p=3779It’s time for some recipe love! As with many multi-part blog posts, my series about how to create a collaborative ebook for fundraising stemmed from my own experiences. When the Goods Giving Back website was also an e-commerce platform, my intention was to develop and sell an ebook to benefit a different member charity every…

When the Goods Giving Back website was also an e-commerce platform, my intention was to develop and sell an ebook to benefit a different member charity every month. It was an exciting endeavor because I would get to collaborate with like-minded people who were willing to share their content for a good cause.

And I was graced with some wonderful connections who enabled me, along with Sami from Orange Juice Diaries to create the free ebook I’m sharing today.

Since Goods Giving Back is no longer an e-commerce platform, this ebook is not going to be used for direct fundraising efforts. I am, instead, using it to showcase one example of what a collaborative ebook for fundraising might look like if you follow the steps I’ve outlined.

Which Recipes Do You Love?

Developing and designing a collaborative recipe ebook is a lot of fun, but can also have some interesting challenges. And Sami, the awesome ebook designer, and I definitely had several discussions along the way to determine the next best steps when we hit bumps in the road.

While none of the issues was a showstopper, these are some things to consider when you’re collaborating on a recipe ebook. Listed below are the top three challenges we encountered and how we handled them.

1. Do we have to stick to the ebook’s original theme?

The original idea for the ebook was a Fall-inspired collection of soups and stews. As various bloggers responded to my call for collaboration, however, we realized we would have to shift our focus. There were people who wanted to contribute but didn’t have a recipe that fell into the soup or stew category.

So, we decided a general collection of recipes would still work and created different sections to accommodate for the variety of recipes our contributors shared.

The takeaway: Work with what you get.

2. How hard and fast should we be with deadlines?

Milestones and deadlines are key to completing a successful project, but there should also be some room in the project plan to accommodate for the unexpected.

For example, emails will somehow end up in a SPAM folder or responses to your requests remain in the “drafts” folder under the assumption they’ve been sent. There will also be hiccups with documents and images through no fault of any human.

Since this book was no longer a seasonal collection, our timeline was able to shift and allow for people not to feel rushed. An end-date for receiving materials was still set, though, which meant some contributors weren’t able to participate (even with the more relaxed schedule) and we all decided we would connect again another time.

The takeaway: Setting realistic time frames doesn’t mean no deadlines.

3. How should we handle poor image quality?

A recipe ebook wouldn’t be the same without photos. And while the majority of food bloggers will already have the necessary food photos, they may not be right for the book. Photos used for blog posts are often processed at a resolution meant for the web and not for something that may be printed.

In most cases, contributors will have the original photo that wasn’t optimized for the web. There may be a small group of people where this isn’t an option, however. At that point, it’s best to see how you can work with the photo. If it still can’t be tweaked enough to work within the ebook design you may have to pass on that person’s contribution.

The takeaway: High resolution images are essential, but there are workarounds.

Recipe Love From Eight Wonderful Women

As we were finalizing the book, it was time to come up with a title. I would like to say it was simple, but the first couple of attempts didn’t quite meet the mark.

It was only when I started thinking about why I started the project in the first place that a title became clear.

I wanted to create the ebook out of a love for all the work small nonprofits across the nation are doing every day. I hoped to help them both by generating revenue from the book and providing idea on ways they could start creating new products to sell.

Once I came to that realization, the title became clear. So we named it The Recipe Is Love: Where Food Meets Philanthropy.

And this book wouldn’t have come to be if it weren’t for these eight wonderful contributors who shared their recipe love:

]]>3779How To Launch An Ebook {GIVEAWAY}http://www.goodsgivingback.com/how-to-launch-an-ebook/
Thu, 09 Nov 2017 17:23:11 +0000http://www.goodsgivingback.com/?p=3774This last step is the big one and, it would be perfectly acceptable to start jumping up and down in celebration, because it’s time to launch your ebook! But first, a quick recap of all the steps involved in creating the ebook. The first four steps are: Step 1: Brainstorming ebook topics Step 2: Creating…

Let’s Launch An Ebook

If you search the internet, you will find plenty of posts that will guide you on how to launch an ebook if you are author looking to promote your writing or online entrepreneurs who build and sell virtual products.

There is a lot of value those posts as high-level context on how ebooks can be launched. It may seem, however, overwhelming for this project since you’re not looking to gain national exposure.

For a small nonprofit, launching an ebook may be the easiest step because you can treat this just like any other “event”. You should let people know about this ebook just as you would annouce an upcoming, live community event, for example.

Part of your project plan should include milestones related to promoting the ebook. Building buzz will not only keep you conneted to your audience, but also get people excited about its launch. Remember to reconnect with the same people and groups you did during the call for contributors.

Along with a promotion strategy, it is important to decide how you want to use the ebook for fundraising.

An Ebook For Fundraising?

I realize that I have talked about this ebook project in the context of fundraising but haven’t provided a lot of information. So, you are probably saying to yourself, “Right, an ebook for fundraising, but how?”

And sadly, my answer is one that isn’t a fan favorite: it depends. I can, however, provide some ideas. You can use the ebook to:

generate money directly (i.e., you sell it online),

promote a specific fundraising campaign by giving it away for free,

get more newsletter subscribers offering it as a thank you for subscribing,

include it as part of a larger giveaway to build your social media channels.

Fortunately, this virutal product provides many different options depending on your goals and objectives.

Goods Giving Back Is Launching An Ebook

Last year, I wanted to learn, first-hand if I could create a collaborative ebook and that experience provided the content for this series.

On Monday, I will launch the ebook to which some wonderful food bloggers contributed and it’s the perfect recipe book to create something warm as the days get darker and colder.

To celebrate the upcoming launch and bring some visibility to the contributors and creators, I joined a great group giveaway so everyone ones! The giveaway details are below.

Enjoy and please stop back for the official launch of the book on Wednesday, November 22nd!

Giveaway Details

Are you getting geared up for the shopping season? Do you need extra cash for Christmas?? Don’t we all!

We are so excited to be giving away $300 in cash prizes for you to use starting this Thanksgiving weekend.

The giveaway will end midnight on Wednesday, November 22nd, the night before Thanksgiving. You will have 48 hours to respond to the email claiming the prize. If you respond right away, we will get you the gift card code promptly so that you can shop with it on Black Friday! If we don’t hear in 48 hours, we will choose another winner.

]]>3774How To Create An Awesome Ebook Using Powerpoint {Part 5}http://www.goodsgivingback.com/create-ebook-using-powerpoint/
http://www.goodsgivingback.com/create-ebook-using-powerpoint/#commentsThu, 09 Nov 2017 16:39:45 +0000http://www.goodsgivingback.com/?p=3682This post is part 5 of the How To Create A Collaborative Ebook series. To learn more, you can start with Part 1: How To Create A Collaborative E-Book For Easy Fundraising . How To Create An Ebook Using Powerpoint Creating an ebook PDF may seem like quite a complicated process, but it is actually…

How To Create An Ebook Using Powerpoint

Creating an ebook PDF may seem like quite a complicated process, but it is actually much easier than you think! If you’re feeling stuck as to how to get started, this post will guide you through it.

When designing an ebook, the most work happens upfront – before you even start adding any words into your book. Setting up the layout, deciding on the design, selecting fonts and colours etc – this will take a bit of time. But it is worth investing the time upfront and setting up your template, because then it is simply a case of copying over your text, inserting your images, adding some finishing touches, and you are done.

Follow along as I take you through the steps of creating an ebook from scratch.

Step-by-Step To Creating An Ebook Using PowerPoint

Open a blank PowerPoint document – it doesn’t matter just yet what the slide size is.

The PowerPoint menu is made up of tabs and ribbons. The labels across the top are called tabs. Each tab has a ribbon menu, with its own options that relate to the tab name.

We are going to select the ‘Design’ tab.

Once you click on the tan, you will see options that relate to the design and layout of your document. On the left, you will have the various themes you can choose from, and to the right of that, you can select the different variants of the theme and colour options to go with that theme. The first thing we are going to do, however, is to set up the page size.

Click on the ‘Slide Size’ drop-down to the right of the ribbon and select ‘Custom Slide Size’.

A popup will give you the opportunity to change the slide size, and the orientation. Choose ‘Letter’ from the drop down, and ‘Portrait’ for the orientation.

You will see this scaling popup – as you don’t actually have any content yet you can select either option.

Ok, so now we have the right page setup, we are going to start with the general design of the ebook.

You have three options for this:

You can create your own design from scratch,

You can download an ebook template specifically for PowerPoint, or

You can use a pre-loaded theme and adapt it to your needs.

For today’s purposes, we are going to use one of the themes that come with PowerPoint and adapt it slightly.

I selected this theme with the fresh, clean cover pattern. You will notice it looks quite stretched out – that is because the design was for a landscape slideshow. But we can fix this easily.

Before we do that, I am going to have a look at the different variants offered with this theme and choose the one I like the most.

I actually like the original version best, so I will keep it as is.

So now I am going to tweak the theme a bit so it works as an ebook.

To make ‘global’ changes to your template, you work in the ‘Slide Master’ view. Click on the ‘View’ tab, then select ‘Slide Master’.

Any changes you make in this view will affect your whole document.

Scroll to the top slide – this is the ‘Slide Master’. Changes to this slide will affect the other slides in the ‘Slide Master’ view. Here I am going to check the spacing and layout, as well as the font and colours.

I like the font that is used here, but the space for the heading is too big and there isn’t enough space for the actual content.

I have made me heading narrower, moved the blue shape up, and now I will make the content block bigger by dragging the text box higher. I won’t make the boxes wider, as it is important to have plenty of white space around your text. It will make it easier to read.

Now I’m going down to the cover slide, where the pattern got a bit squashed.

I click on the pattern and drag it wider until it looks more rounded. You don’t have to do this if you preferred the pattern as is. You can see some of the pattern sticking out on the side – don’t worry about this, once we save as a PDF at the end it won’t be visible.

The slides you will be using most often are:

Title and Content

Title Only

Blank

Now I’m going to go back to the ‘Normal’ view by clicking on the ‘View’ tab and selecting ‘Normal’ on the ribbon.

Ok, now that we have our template set up, we can start putting in content.

We are going to start with the cover page, which is the page that should be open currently in your document.

Now I want to add a contents page. I am going to use ‘Title Only’ slide. I get this by clicking on the ‘Home’ tab, then clicking on the ‘New Slide’ dropdown. I will select the ‘Title Only’ slide and update the slide title.

I then added in a table for my contents. It’s quite simple – I may change it later but for now, it works.

Now I will show you how to insert the pages for the content.

Click on the ‘New Slide’ dropdown again and select ‘Title and Content’.

Here you start adding the content you have for your ebook. You can copy and paste the text into the text boxes. When pasting – click inside your text box, then right-click and select ‘Keep Text Only’. This will ensure that the formatting doesn’t carry over from your Word document (or wherever you are copying the text from), and the formatting will then be consistent throughout your ebook.

You can include images onto your pages quite easily.

The next page I’m going to create will have an image on top, and the text at the bottom, so I select the ‘Title and Content’ slide again from the ‘New Slide’ dropdown. I have dragged the text box down to about halfway down the page and added the text.

Now you can copy your image and paste it onto the slide.

Bonus Tip #1

If you are using hi-res images, just adding a few photos will make your ebook a very large file. This trick will keep the quality of your images, but reduce the file size.

Click on your image and ‘Ctrl x’ (i.e. cut)

Under the ‘Home’ tab on the far left, you will see a ‘Paste’ dropdown.

Select ‘Paste Special’

On the popup select ‘Picture (JPEG)’ and click OK

Your image will now be 10% the original size (in MB/KB) but have the same quality.

Now I just need to move and resize the photo to fit the space (hold the ‘Shift’ button down while resizing to keep the aspect ratio of the photo the same and to avoid a photo that looks squashed or stretched out). In this case, the photo is too high, so I’m going to take some text out and resize the text box.

Bonus Tip #2

If you need images to use in your ebook and you don’t have the funds to purchase them, there are plenty of stock photography websites that offer their images for free, either with our without attribution. Make sure to read their terms of service carefully though – some sites only allow you to use their photos if you are not making money from your ebook.

Carry on adding content to your pages. You can try out different layouts for the pages, but don’t make each one completely different to the next. Choose 2 – 3 layouts and keep to these. Have a consistent layout provides continuity and will make your ebook easier to read.

I’ve gone a very simple layout for this ebook. And looking at it now, I know how I want to change the content page.

I’m going to change up the colours, and add in an image (the same way I showed you how earlier).

Now I’m ready to add the back page.

I am going to select the ‘Blank’ slide from the ‘New Slide’ dropdown. I want to make my back page a solid colour. Because I don’t want all the other pages I used the ‘Blank’ slide for to change colour, I am simply going to place a shape onto the page.

Select the ‘Insert’ tab, click on the ‘Shapes’ dropdown and select the rectangle.

Adjust the shape to fit the page, then fill the shape with your selected colour. (Make sure to select the shape first, otherwise, the ‘Shape Fill’ dropdown will be greyed out.

On this last page, you can include any disclaimer you may have. Insert a blank text box (‘Insert’ tab, ‘Text Box’ button), and paste your disclaimer. You can also include your logo on this last page.

As a pre-final step, I always recommend a final spell-check, in case something snuck in there along the way.

And now, for the final step – saving your ebook as PDF.

There are two ways to do this. I will show you my preferred way first.

Click ‘File’, then go down to ‘Save As’. Select the folder you want to save your PDF in. The folder’s location will come up. In the drop down at the bottom of the window where it currently says PowerPoint Presentation, click on that and go down to PDF. Click ‘Save’.

(Option 2: If you have an older version of PPT that doesn’t have this option, you can ‘print’ to Adobe PDF. This will, unfortunately, leave a white border around the edges of your page.)

And there you have it! You have your gorgeous ebook ready to send to your readers!

Thank You To My Guest Blogger

This wonderful post was create by guest blogger Joelle Brisland who is the founder of Vardo Media, a content creation agency that helps build brands through quality content.

]]>http://www.goodsgivingback.com/create-ebook-using-powerpoint/feed/236825 Easy Places To Make A Call For Contributors {Part 4}http://www.goodsgivingback.com/5-places-call-for-contributors-ebook/
Tue, 07 Nov 2017 18:31:26 +0000http://www.goodsgivingback.com/?p=3723Now that you know the topic of your ebook and you’ve used some of the free project management tools to set up your project infrastructure, it’s time to make a call for contributors for your ebook. I realize it’s sometimes hard to ask for help especially when, as a nonprofit, many perceive there is always…

]]>Now that you know the topic of your ebook and you’ve used some of the free project management tools to set up your project infrastructure, it’s time to make a call for contributors for your ebook.

I realize it’s sometimes hard to ask for help especially when, as a nonprofit, many perceive there is always an “ask” involved in many of the interactions.

Making a call for contributors, however, allows the ask to be something that ‘costs’ a person nothing. It is even a wonderful option for those who would like to support your organization but cannot donate cash at this time. It is merely a donation of their time to provide content to share as part of the ebook.

So I want to share five easy places to make a call for contributions. Depending on the topic of your ebook, some of these suggestions will be more successful than others.

First and foremost, it’s important to know exactly what you need and the timeframe in which you need it. Clearly communicating your needs and goals will make everything run more smoothly.

How To Make A Call For Contributors

Making a call for contributors is presenting your idea to a group of people to peak their interest in the hopes they want to discuss it more with you.

To make this process easy, it’s best to write a short paragraph explaining your what your ebook is about, who it will benefit, and high-level details around your needs. For example, is it a recipe, a tutorial, an anecdote about life?

This teaser will peak someone’s interest and hopefully have them contact you directly for more information. Once they contact you, you should have another already written, longer and more detailed explanation of the project and participation requirements. The message should end with an invitation to participate and the link to the form you created to collect the contributions.

Where To Make A Call For Contributors

Once you have your pitch in place, it’s time to use it! Again, this should as easy as just cutting and pasting where appropriate (if it’s not an in-person ask).

Here are five easy places to start when you being to make a call for contributors:

friends and family,

donors and volunteers,

in-person networking

social media

online affinity groups (Facebook and forums).

Friends and Family

This is the most obvious place to ask for contributions to your ebook. If it’s a recipe book, for example, maybe an aunt or grandmother would be willing to share her special sauce.

If it is a craft-focused book, maybe your Martha Stewart-esque friend would be willing to write a tutorial as part of the effort.

Donors and Volunteers

Donors and volunteers may already get a lot of requests, so how you approach them should depend on your overall communications strategy. You can either ask for participation in this project by integrating it into an already scheduled communication or have a special one dedicated to this project.

Regardless, you can leverage your newsletter (either paper or online) as an simple place to remind people you would love for them to participate in this effort to raise awareness or funds for your nonprofit.

In-person Networking

If you or someone on your team actively networks locally or nationally, this is a great place to talk to people about your project and how it not only serves as a way to give back but also provides some promotional opportunities for their contributions.

Social Media

Social media is a low-cost method to start connecting with prospective contributors. If you use a social media management tool like Hootsuite, it’s even easier because you can schedule your call for contributors posts ahead of time and then just respond to those who contact you.

Remember to use catchy images on platforms like Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook to grab people’s attention and a simple 140 character ask on Twitter.

Online Affinity groups (Facebook and Forums)

If you are a part of any Facebook groups or forums (personally or professional) that allow you to ask people to work with you on projects, this is a place where you are more likely to have people respond to your request.

This likelihood is even higher if the group has a regularly scheduled “call for collaboration” or “joint venture” feature.

Provide A New Opportunity To Contribute

Creating a collaborative ebook is a new way for people to contribute to your small nonprofit in a meaningful way. If you start with the five easy places to make a call for contributors explained in this post, you’ll have a full inbox in no time!

]]>37236 Free Project Management Tools Imperative To Collaboration Success {Part 3}http://www.goodsgivingback.com/6-free-project-management-tools/
http://www.goodsgivingback.com/6-free-project-management-tools/#commentsMon, 30 Oct 2017 18:44:01 +0000http://www.goodsgivingback.com/?p=3607For a collaborative e-book project to be successful, it’s important to have an infrastructure in place that makes it easy for people to interact and contribute. So I want to share details about six free project management tools that are sure to set your project up for success. First, however, take a look at the…

For a collaborative e-book project to be successful, it’s important to have an infrastructure in place that makes it easy for people to interact and contribute. So I want to share details about six free project management tools that are sure to set your project up for success.

First, however, take a look at the image on the right which provides a recap of the five steps in this collaborative e-book series so you can see what has already been discussed and what comes after this “timeline and infrastructure” step in the overall process.

If you want to start the series from the beginning, you can read Part 1 and Part 2 before jumping into Part 3.

Project Management Is A Must-Do

A collaborative e-book involves a group of people working together (typically as a virtual team) to create a finished product.

As a small non-profit or small business, you will most likely be working with people who aren’t part of your organization but want to do their part to help. To stay on track, it is essential to have straightforward processes in place.

Project Timelines Are Key

Before you start using tools to put project management processes into place, you have to create a realistic timeline. This timeline, at a high level, should include the amount of time you will need for contributor solicitations, content collection, and e-book creation. With the right processes and tools in place, a collaborative e-book from start to finish can take as little as eight weeks.

To meet a tight time frame like an eight week goal, it is also essential to set and follow through with the key dates and milestones you’ve established and communicated.

Once the timeline is set, you can start setting up your project infrastructure using free project management tools. There are all kinds of tools available so to narrow it down, I am highlight six free project management tools that will make it easy to create your collaborative e-book.

Six Free Project Management Tools

Typeform (Forms)

There are a variety of form-building tools out there, but my go-to has been Typeform for a while now because the forms are not only easy to build regardless of your technical know-how but also have a fluid user experience.

For your e-book project, you would use Typeform to build a single form to collect all of the information and content necessary to create your product. Building a form with a tool like this not only allows you to send the same, exact link (and form) easily to every participant, but it will also combine all of the responses into a single document for you when your collection stage is complete.

Google Sheets (Spreadsheets)

When you’re pulling together a project plan for a collaborative e-book, it doesn’t require a complex project management program. Your best bet is using a spreadsheet program to document and communication key dates and milestones. The rows and cells make it easy to read and you can outline the key activities and dates using font size and color coding as you see fit.

MS Excel is often the default for many people (myself included). If you’re looking for free options with easy sharing capabilities, however, Google Sheets is a great option. Not only will you use Google Sheets for your project timeline, but will also save your information from each of the collected forms a spreadsheet. In addition, if you want to track “assets” (i.e., the graphics and images people submit) using a spreadsheet is a straightforward way tot do it.

Dropbox (Cloud Sharing)

Typeform will take care of collection the key pieces of information you need, but what about collecting and saving any graphics, images, or related documents you may need as part of your collaborative e-book?

Enter Dropbox. Use Dropbox to create a folder structure in the cloud and have each of your contributors save their graphics and documents in a specific folder you. For a project like this, I recommend creating a separate folder for each contributor so that you can clearly keep track of each person’s contribution.

A Notebook & Pen (Notes & Ideas)

I realize this isn’t a truly “free” tool since someone has to pay for the notebook and the pen, but it still falls within one of my more important project management tools. Documenting your ideas offline is always a good process because putting a pen to paper offers a visceral integration that using a computer does not.

Not only can you use your notebook to map out a super high-level project plan very quickly, but you can also brainstorm ideas for contributors, visual design, and the marketing of the e-book without committing to any one idea.

And if that doesn’t work for some reason, it’s always a great tool to have on-hand for doodling when your brain needs a break from all the planning.

Trello (Visual Project Management)

Speaking of using images as a way of communication, if you are a visual person Trello is a valuable project management tool. You can use it for, among other things, timeline and asset management.

Create Trello boards and place cards on them to design a streamlined view of the project. Using Trello will keep everyone informed about the milestones, outstanding items, and major deadlines.

Each of your contributors will to have to have a Trello login unless you sign up for “business class” which would allow anyone without a Trello account to be an “observer“.

If This Then That (Task Automation)

After reading through this list of free project management tools, you’re probably saying to yourself, “Wow. This seems like a lot of different tools for a little project.” The beauty of these tools, however, is that once you set many of them up, they do the work for you.

This doesn’t mean that we can’t add some additional automation into the process, though. Using a tool like IFTTT (IF This Then That) will provide you with key notifications throughout the collaborative e-book project as well as act like a virtual assistant by completing tasks for you.